Little Shot of Brandie

Friday, April 5, 2013

Hi guys! It's been a while since my last post, I know. I'm dealing with a general case of the blahs, mixed with a huge case of zero motivation to do ANYTHING. Add in the passing of my recent 29th birthday on the first of April, and it's a downward spiral.

I've been missing my mom a lot these last few weeks, especially in the days before my birthday. For those of you who don't know, I was born on April 1, 1984 and shortly thereafter I was adopted by my wonderful mother, Eileen.

Mom already had 3 children, the youngest being 8 years older than me. Eileen knew my biological mother closely, and so when BioMother said that she just couldn't take care of me, Eileen quietly said "I want her." Here was a woman who already had 3 children (who were a handful, let me tell you!), but she had so much love in her heart that she took someone else's child and gave her a home.

Not just a home. A family. From the time I was old enough to understand what adoption meant, I knew that Eileen wasn't my birth mother. She made damn sure that I knew that even though I wasn't a child of her womb, I was a child of her heart. I was also the youngest, and so I will confess to being a -tad- spoiled.

In any case, I was lucky. I grew up in a very dysfunctional family, but it was a very loving one underneath the chaos. My mother was not perfect, by any means, but she was a GREAT mother. I never, as some adopted children do, felt that I wasn't part of the family. And I was always Mommy's baby. :D

I grew up, met the man who stole my heart, moved out, and had my babies. Looking back, I can see how lonely my mom must have been having all her kids grown and involved in their own lives. She was so wrapped up in being Mom that she just didn't know how to be anything else! Then she got sick.

It was a horrible three months. The cancer was very advanced, and they tried the chemo, but by the time we caught it, there wasn't much the chemo could do. She passed away just days before Christmas and all in a heartbeat, my world was blown apart. My babies, especially my boys, were destroyed, and it was all I could do to hold it together for them.

But every year, on my birthday, it hurts just a little worse than on the other days. My birthday was always a big deal for me and Mom. She always went out of her way to make it as special as she could, even though she didn't always have the money to throw a party or buy me presents.

The running joke was that because I'd been born at 11:56 p.m., four minutes before midnight, I only had four minutes to make a wish, blow out my candles, eat my cake, and open the presents. Every year, without fail, she'd burst into my room at 11:56 and jump on me to give me my "birthday smacks."

Being born on April Fool's Day, you can imagine the torture I endured. On my 16th birthday, she handed me a box that contained a set of car keys. I nearly had a heart attack! Every 16 year old dreams of getting a car on their birthday! I run outside, only to be brought up short by the sight of a big red bow, laying on the ground in front of our house.

"Happy Birthday!!! Do you like your new invisible car?" I was not amused. Now, it's funny as hell, and I may just do it to my oldest when he turns 16, but then? I was MAD!

Well, anyway, I'm not sure what the point of this post was, other than to share a little bit of the awesomeness of my mom with all of you. I'd also like to share a poem I wrote for her, so here it is. Maybe it will bring some comfort to anyone who's lost someone.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

I'm such an airhead... I should have posted this yesterday for you guys, so you could make them for today. Well, better late than never, I guess. Anyway! I was trolling the internet for recipes one day last year and I came across this post from the Browneyed Baker...

For the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring the Guinness and butter to a simmer in a heavy, medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl to combine. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sour cream on medium speed until combined. Add the Guinness-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat just to combine. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture and beat briefly. Using a rubber spatula, fold the batter until completely combined.

Divide the batter among the cupcake liners. Bake until a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Cool the cupcakes on a rack.

Whiskey Ganache Filling: Finely chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then, using a rubber spatula, stir it from the center outward until smooth. Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined. Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped.

Filling the Cupcakes: Using a cupcake corer or the bottom of a large icing tip, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes, going about two-thirds of the way down. Transfer the ganache to a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

Bailey's Frosting: Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer or a hand held mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Reduce the speed to medium-low and gradually add the powdered sugar until all of it is incorporated. Add the Baileys, increase the speed to medium-high and whip for another 2 to 3 minutes, until it is light and fluffy.

Using your favorite decorating tip, or an offset spatula, frost the cupcakes and decorate with sprinkles, if desired. Store the cupcakes in an airtight container.

Fantastic!!! Another successfully tested recipe. Hope you guys have fun with this one! Let me know how they turn out.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Ugh. Have you ever had one of those days where you're just sick of everything and you have no idea what to make for dinner? That was me, yesterday. So I ask the hubby what he wants and I get "Whatever you want." Really? Would I be asking what you want if I had any IDEA what I wanted? Grrrrr! So, I plopped the laptop on his lap with my Good Eats Pinterest board open and told him to find something. This is what he came up with.

Now, we all know that not everything on Pinterest works out as well as it looks in the photos. But, that's what this blog is all about. Finding new recipes, trying them out, and letting you guys know how it worked out so you don't have to waste the time and money. In this case, it was a slam dunk!

Herb Crusted Chicken in Basil Cream Sauce

(The original recipe made enough for two people. I had to double it to make enough for everyone in my family, but I will stick to the original recipe to avoid confusion :)

Ingredients:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup Progresso Garlic and Herb Bread Crumbs (All I had on hand was plain, so I just made my own by adding 2 tsp of Italian Seasoning)

Melt the butter in a medium non stick skillet over MEDIUM heat. The chicken is thin, so it will cook quickly, and we don't want to burn it!

Add the chicken and cook until nicely browned and cooked through (about 10 minutes, depending on how thin your chicken is. When in doubt, use a meat thermometer! USDA temp for chicken is 165 degrees)

Drooling yet?

Remove chicken and keep warm. In the same skillet, add the garlic and saute for one minute.

Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil, stirring to scrape up all those yummy bits off the bottom of the pan.

Add the tomatoes and cream and boil for one minute, stirring.

Reduce heat to low and add the Parmesan cheese, basil, and pepper to taste. Stir and cook the sauce until heated through and thickened. (About 5 minutes)

Serve by pouring the sauce over the chicken. You could serve it over a bed of pasta with some crusty bread to sop up all that heavenly sauce. In fact, the hubby said this should be our go to Alfredo sauce!

So, there it is. A Pinterest recipe tested and approved. Easy, delicious, and it does look exactly like the pic!

Friday, March 15, 2013

Hello, my friends! It has been a while since I posted, I know, but life got in the way :D We actually took the kids on a couple road trips, one to Crystal Cave in Kutztown, PA and the other to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD. That was such an amazing day! We spent the morning and afternoon in Baltimore, and then on the way home we swung through Washington D.C. and showed the kids the White House and all the amazing memorials. A.J. and Nick were all about the Lincoln Memorial, because, and I quote "That's the same statue that's in Night At the Museum 2, Mom!"

Anyway, we had a blast, but I'm back now, and in such a great mood! Hanging out with my kids makes me happy, and here's some other things that make me happy: rainbows, cupcakes, Channing Tatum, and Nora Roberts. I can't give you Channing or Nora, but I can give you rainbows and cupcakes... together!

I know rainbow cakes were EVERYWHERE for a while. Not being a girl who likes to jump on the bandwagon, I stayed away from them. Also, I saw so many pics posted of cakes where the colors had run together and ended up making this weird, grayish purple cake that made me think of zombie flesh. So, I give you rainbow cupcakes!

Slightly more time consuming then the cake version, BUT... prettier, and the colors don't run together.

Again, this is something I did before I started the blog, so there aren't step-by-step photos, but I don't feel they'd be needed in any case. This couldn't be more simple. It IS time consuming, but well worth it in the end.

All you really need to do is take a box of white cake mix, mix it according to directions, and then divide the batter evenly into six bowls. Take your choice of food coloring and add it to the bowls to get purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. ( I used the regular food coloring, so I had to play around to get the right hue. I've never used GEL coloring, but I've heard that the colors are more vibrant. If you know for sure, leave me a comment!)

Now here's the time sucker! You need to layer each color one at a time into your cupcake liners. You could certainly use a spoon and carefully spread out each layer over the last one, but I found that the easiest way to do it was to scoop each color into it's own Ziplock bag, snip off a corner, and pipe the batter into the liner.

See, you want to make sure to keep the layers thin in order to get all of the colors in without overfilling the liner. You also have to be careful to completely cover each previous layer with the new layer, in order to prevent colors mixing!

I'd also recommend sticking with the order of colors used in the picture. It's a tad blurry, I apologize, but the order is, from the bottom up:

Purple

Blue

Green

Yellow

Orange

Red

The cupcake in the picture is one that I made using a spoon to spread each color, so as you can see... there's too much purple and not enough orange. It was hard to get the layers spread out completely without mixing them, so that's why I switched to the Ziplock baggies. Much easier, neater, and less cleanup!

Once you get the layers done, just pop them in the oven and bake according to box directions. Voila! Pretty rainbow cupcakes! One of my favorite things about them is that if you use the foil liners, nobody will know what the cupcake looks like until they peel the liner off. I wish I had take a picture of a whole one to show you how cool they look on the outside, but I didn't so you'll just have to make them yourself to see! :)

Well, there it is, folks. These are perfect for St. Patty's Day, school bake sales, birthday parties, football games, etc. If you're making a lot of them, you could recruit some friends and set up a little assembly line and have one person do each color.

I hope you make them and love them as much as I did! Let me know how they turn out in the comments below.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Ick... I am not a morning person. Whoever invented 7 a.m. is probably the same guy who decided on the spelling of Wednesday. This man obvioulsy delights in tormenting the innocent.

Needless to say, I'm a grumpy bitch today, so I figured I would post something designed to put a smile on anyone's face. Hopefully, by the time I get through adding the pics and post this, I'll be in a better mood... otherwise, someone please warn my kids!

Never EVER fails. For some reason, I die laughing everytime I see this.

*snicker* It's so true though!

100% applies to me.

I can't even... there's no words for this. It's so freaking cute, it hurts.

Giggle-worthy, but really it's all about the Channing. Mmmmm, Channing.

Most awesome dad EVER! This will totally be Jeff when the girls start dating, lol.

If that ain't the damn truth!

*ahem* I don't know who this could be referring to...

Indeed.

ANd this one is my favorite... In my case, it would be "Babe," rather than Mom and Dad, lol. He finally got me a Kindle in self defense... he says, and I quote "You're not the one who has to carry all those damn boxes full of books when we move... the Kindle's expensive, but not as expensive as the hospital bills when I give myself a freaking hernia!"

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

The name says it all, folks. These pork chops are juicy, tender, melt in your mouth delicious. The gravy alone is so good I wanted to take a bath in it... and so easy to make. Hubby ate 4 of them... that's right... 4. F-O-U-R! They were that good. So, I thought I'd share them with you! I only have one pic for these, as I made them before I started this blog, but it's a pic of the finished product, at least.

*sigh* Apologies for the subpar picture... it in no way does justice to how good these looked.

Smothered Pork Chops

Ingredients:

4 bone-in center cut pork chops (about an inch thick)

3/4 cup all purpose flour

2 tablespoons EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

1 tablespoon butter

1 onion sliced (thick or thin, depending on how you like your onions)

2 teaspoons dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried sage

1 and a 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth

2/3 cup milk

Ready, set, GO!

1. Salt the porkchops. Now, here you can get a little crazy and add a little seasoning. I sprinkled the chops with some cajun seasoning for a little kick, but you can use whatever herbs and spices you like. Don't coat the chops, just give em a happy little shower of herbaceous love :p

2. Pour the flour in a shallow bowl and lightly dredge the chops in it, making sure to tap off excess. KEEP THE REST OF THE FLOUR!

3. Heat the EVOO in a skillet large enough to contain all the chops. Use MEDIUM HEAT. We're just trying to get a nice browning on the chops, not cook them all the way through at this stage, usually 2-3 minutes per side. Transfer the chops to the plate.

4. You should have all sorts of yummy stuff at the bottom of the skillet now. We're going to use it! Add the onions, butter, thyme, sage, and a sprinkle of salt to the skillet. If the onions start to brown too quickly, lower the heat a bit. We want the onion golden brown, about 8 minutes.

5. Now add 2 tablespoons of that flour I told you to keep and stir it in for about a minute, just to cook the flour taste out. Add the chicken broth, bring to a boil and cook for about 2 minutes.

6. Now pour in the milk, and breath the scent of that yummyness in... then add the chops to it and pat yourself on the back for being so awesome :)

7. Once the sauce starts to simmer, set the heat to medium-low and let it hang out until the sauce thickens up a bit and the chops are just cooked through, about 10 minutes. They should register 160 degrees on a meat thermometer, so if 10 minutes doesn't quite get you there, let em hang out a bit more. Trust me, extra time spent in that gravy bath won't hurt them any!

8. Let chops rest at least 3 minutes off the heat before serving, to give them time to suck all those juices back in.

*Must serve with rolls or crusty bread to sop up that gravy with! I caught the hubby using a slice of sandwich bread to swab the skillet out after dinner, lol!*

Good luck, and I hope it turns out just as amazing for you as it did for me... let me know!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a good morning. Mine was awesome :D Dad was home from work today, so I got to sleep in a bit while he got the kids ready for school. Sheer bliss! I don't get to sleep in very often... if you're a mom, you understand. Once your kids are up, you're up. It's the mommy instinct, I guess.

Anyway, I've got a pretty cool post for you all today. I've compiled these genius little tips from all over the internet, and once you read them... you'll probably have a similar reaction to mine. Which was "Well, now I feel like an idiot." :p Hope they help, and if you've got any tips of your own, leave them in the comments!

Got a stripped screw? Lay a rubber band between the head of the screw and the tip of the screwdriver!

Everyone's got that pair of jeans that the zipper won't stay up on. Simple solution? Thread a circular key ring through the hole on the zipper tab, pull the zipper up, hook it over the button, and then button the pants as usual. Voila!

Fun little trick for bored kids on a summer night: Grab some glow sticks from the Dollar store, activate them, and then cut them open and pour the solution into bubbles. Glow in the dark bubbles! (Parental supervision for younger kids, obviously!)

Pour pancake batter into an empty, clean ketchup bottle. No mess, and you can make letters, faces, whatever you want!

Love this one for a baby shower or maybe a little girl's tea party: Bake cupcakes in those little ketchup cups you find at fast food restraunts. Not sure where you'd find them, so a little research is required, but you wouldn't need cupcake tins. Just put them on a cookie sheet. So cute!

I am about to change your life forever... Easter egg dyeing with small children made EASY! Push the egg into a wire wisk and let the little one dip it into the dye!

Use unflavored dental floss to cut soft cheeses or cakes neatly and easily! I used this to cut a round cake into two layers... I wrapped the floss around the middle of cake, crossed the ends, and pulled it slowly and steadily. Two perfectly even cake layers!

Small bathroom in need of more storage? Find a cheap cd tower and mount it sideways to the wall! Could also be used in an entryway for mail sorting, or a cute way to store cooking utensils in a kitchen with limited drawer space. Possibilities are endless!

There you go! There's probably a billion more tips out there, and I'm sure I'll be adding more in posts to come. Let me know if you used any of them, and again, if you have any to add, leave them in the comments!

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About Me

I'm Brandie! Mommy to four beautiful kids, 2 boys and 2 girls. They're the most important things I'll ever do in my life, but aside from them, I'm bit of a dork. I like to blast Christina Aguilera on my mp3 player and sing as loud as I can while I clean. I'll read anything you put in front of me, from the Fablehaven Series to Dean Koontz. Zombie movies give me nightmares, and I hate spiders!